A conventional universal integrated circuit card (UICC) is customized by an operator, and includes information related to the operator at delivery; therefore, only the corresponding operator can be connected by using the UICC. An embedded UICC (eUICC) is a UICC embedded in a terminal device, and can be remotely managed by a network side, for example, downloading of mobile operator data, and switching or accessing of a mobile operator network; therefore, different operator networks can be accessed by using the eUICC.
In the prior art, such a scenario is proposed: a Machine to Machine (M2M) service provider (SP) enters into a contract with a mobile network operator (MNO), and the MNO provides a service to a batch of eUICC terminals of the SP; and after the contract expires, the SP selects to enter into a contract with another MNO. It is hoped that such switching can be automatically completed in a relatively short given time.
Because network coverage statuses of different MNOs are different, a network of an MNO after switching may not completely cover all the eUICC terminal devices that are subscribed with the MNO, of the SP. To ensure continuity of a service of the SP, a coverage status of a target network to be switched to needs to be detected before switching.